Crack The Customer Code

Adam Toporek explains how the Peak-End Rule can make or break a customer experience in surprising ways, and how leveraging it helps you leave a more favorable impression on your customers...on purpose! Ruling customer emotions with the Peak-End Rule One thing we’ve covered a lot on this show is how to “wow” your customers. But we often forget that an overall wonderful experience can be filled with terrible moment-to-moment experiences, and vice-versa. So what are your customers really feeling after the experience you’ve invested so much in? Does all the surprise and delight you add to your customer experience add up to something your customers will really look back on favorably? It seems pretty simple, but it’s a vexing paradox even the best business leaders struggle to get a grip on! “Our memory of the experiences is not the average of how we felt throughout the experiences.” - Adam Toporek This is why business leaders need not only to understand the Peak-End Rule, but to bake it into our customer experi

Adam and Jeannie unlock your potential to create and deliver ever-improving customer experiences with Shaun Belding, CEO of The Belding Group and author of The Journey to Wow. Are you on your Journey to Wow? Leaders everywhere say they want to “wow” their customers. So they create new processes and experiences that look great from within the walls of their organizations. Then they find out customers are saying “wow, that was… awful!” But who hasn’t said that more than once? We all know there are two kinds of “wow,” so why do we forget about this when creating customer experiences? “Customer Experience has a payoff. You have to believe that.” -Shaun Belding Shaun Belding, CEO of the Belding Group, understands how easy it is to miss the mark when creating memorable customer experiences. In fact, his latest book is all about how to create these “wow” experiences without losing sight of customer emotions and what “wow” really means to them. It starts with defining what “wow” really means within the contex

Jeannie and Adam discuss the past, present and future of custom subscription boxes and their growing role in the data revolution. Subscription boxes enter the data revolution In the past few years, we have seen explosive growth in data collection methods. As a result, marketers get a better ROI on their campaigns while delivering more personalized products, services, and experiences. And now we’ve seen a growing trend in subscription boxes, where consumers offer much richer information from the start. Services like BirchBox, StitchFix, BarkBox, Blue Apron, and many others, offer custom-tailored boxes based not only on their initial preferences, but their behavior of returning merchandise, upgrading and downgrading service levels, and more. “The data that you CAN get is so much richer…” -Jeannie Walters But now these services are beginning to use Artificial Intelligence to analyze this data, and really leveraging the power of smart algorithms. This serves not only to reduce the costs of keeping stylists an

Forward-thinking designer and strategic facilitator Ruben Ocampo joins us not only to set the record straight about what design thinking really is, but to share his unique, human-centric approach to service design. Do you see service design through a human lens? In this ever-changing world of products and services, we have a major problem with problem-solving. Too often, we approach service design as a means to our own ends. Then, in our efforts to adopt a better approach, we adopt terms like “design thinking” that tend to lose their true meaning through all the buzz. Many companies interpret design thinking as a better kind of brainstorming session, which is only a small part of it. While great ideas may be born this way, they often only live on paper. As a result, companies waste millions launching innovations that don’t solve the problems they intended to solve. In fact, sometimes new problems are created in the process! “Even if we don’t have the title of designer, we’re designing solutions for some

Adam and Jeannie discuss the apparent decline in trust of Word of Mouse and how businesses and consumers are navigating the misinformation associated with online reviews. Navigating the new Word of Mouse Positive word of mouth can be very powerful in driving sales and forging loyalty. But because marketers know this, review sites and forums are becoming rife with fake reviews. For example, it’s been said recently that up to one-third of reviews on TripAdvisor are fake. “People are more and more suspect of fake reviews.” -Adam Toporek However, it’s not just TripAdvisor we’re talking about here. There’s a huge market for fake reviews, and some marketers have started using “review farms” and other clever (or not-so-clever) ways to sneak them into giants like Amazon. As a result, customers are trusting word of mouse, or online reviews, less and less. “They are gaming the system to the detriment of those of us who do trust reviews…” -Jeannie Walters So, is word of mouse as a means to influence customers on t

Bestselling author and career futurist Marti Konstant joins us to discuss how an agile career can create a brighter future for you, your colleagues, and your organization. Why career agility is a priority With customer expectations changing constantly, agility is important in today’s marketplace. But how agile is your business, really, if your career is not? How ready are you to take the next step in your project, in your organization, or ultimately, in your career? “… develop talent value for yourself that wouldn’t exist…” -Marti Konstant Marti Konstant created the Career Agility Model not only to help professionals keep one foot stepping towards tomorrow’s success, but to help them bring more value to their organizations today. Having an agile career, as Marti explains, makes you more successful in projects, careers, and personal branding. But it’s not about learning to do anything and everything at once. In fact, focusing on one great thing can be your ticket to leveraging your other strengths in

Jeannie Walters CCXP gives you the 101 on customer journey mapping so you can stop stalling and start making a difference today. Customer Journey Mapping: What’s holding you back? When the subject of customer journey mapping comes up, we often think of gorgeous, robust maps that take forever to complete. Then we think of how much work that must be, how enormous our customer journey is, and ultimately, how we don’t have the time or money for all that. But that’s why many business leaders miss out on the amazing “A-Ha!” moments and opportunities to add delight that only come from a customer journey mapping project. It’s too easy to get hung up on the deliverable itself, when it’s actually the project, the “doing” of customer journey mapping, that makes the magic happen.  “Doing a journey map for journey mapping’s sake…Congratulations, you have a poster, and customers still hate you.” – Jeannie Walters What’s more, customer journey mapping is typically seen as a huge project that takes forever. “How can w

Adam and Jeannie discuss how to overcome the pitfalls and challenges of developing a business model around entrepreneurship with Danny Schuman, author of “The Worst Business Model” and founder of Twist. Do entrepreneurs need to have a business model? As entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and small business owners, we tend to follow our passions and go with our guts on everything. But sooner or later, we must develop a business model or scaling becomes difficult… or even impossible! “Sometimes it’s hard to get out of our own way.” -Danny Schuman It’s tough to develop standards and policies when thus far, we’ve surrounded ourselves with great people, done whatever we do best, and it’s all been working out. While it can feel like we don’t need a business model, serving more clients and maintaining solid relationships with them becomes incredibly difficult. But how can we develop guidelines and rules without losing touch with the passion that brought us here in the first place? As an entrepreneur who beat the od

Adam and Jeannie explore the decline of people using the phone for customer service and how to know if chat is better for you and your customers. Why is chat better than phone for some customers? We all know calling a company for customer service is typically time-consuming and frustrating. So with text-based service options like chat becoming more available, many of us are opting not to pick up the phone. “We all have been trained to not pick up the phone…” -Jeannie Walters But is this really better? While chat offers convenience and a better sense of control for the customer, phone conversations capture more of the emotion and urgency of the situation. So even though we save on resources by sending customers through this channel, we miss out on valuable insights that can only be communicated through the spoken word. Perhaps we should not be looking at this as one channel being better than the other. Instead, maybe we should be thinking about what actually serves the customer in the moment. For instan

Joshua March, bestselling author and Founder of Conversiocial, shares how social media messaging helps create better customer experiences while cutting customer service costs. Customer service efficiency through social media messaging Besides the fact that customers want help via social media messaging, it’s cheaper, faster and more efficient that traditional channels. But most companies have yet to adopt it as a core channel for customer service and communication in general. “If you’re taking a day to respond, then people will just end up phoning” @joshuamarch These channels aren’t going away, friends. In fact, 8 billion business-to-consumer messages are sent via Facebook messenger monthly, and this number has grown 4 times past 12 months. So we invited Joshua March, Founder of Conversocial, to discuss the benefits and challenges of adopting social media messaging as a primary method of communication, both internally and with customers. “You really need to be treating messaging as a semi-real-time c

Adam and Jeannie discuss the core distinctions between a purchase brand and a usage brand and how that translates to better customer experiences, and ultimately, greater long-term success. Your customer’s journey is not what you think it is It’s one thing to sell a product or service then call it a success and move on to the next customer... But it’s another thing to continue building a mutually rewarding relationship with that first customer. As it turns out, engaging, educating and celebrating existing customers leads to increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. “How can we make sure that that usage part is amazing?” - Jeannie Walters Simply put, to create a brand that inspires loyalty and advocacy, you need to focus on creating an experience that lives beyond the sales phase to inform and encourage the way customers use your product or service. Top brands like Sephora and AirBNB create lasting relationships around usage instead of pouring all that money and energy into traditional marketing, and

Jeannie and Adam interview author and speaker Melissa Agnes about how preparing beyond traditional crisis management can make your brand invincible. Will Crisis Management save your brand? Most brands have a Crisis Management plan, typically as a large volume to refer to for guidance when a situation arises. Unfortunately, these plans rarely pull through during a real crisis. And what’s more, they serve only as reactive tools. So, what good is that when bad PR has already gone viral or your partners are backing out of a deal to prevent risking their own reputation? “If you think about crisis management when a crisis strikes, you are behind. You’re doomed, really.” -Melissa Agnes Speaker and author Melissa Agnes is here to tell us there’s a better way to approach crisis situations. In fact, she knows how your brand can become invincible by getting ahead of these situations, instead of just reacting to them! “When you have those unbreakable relationship, you also gain the benefit of the doubt” -Melissa

Live from the National Speakers Association’s Influence 2018 conference, Adam and Jeannie take the mic (and camera!) to make 2 strong cases for mapping your customer’s journey more thoroughly. Your customer’s journey is not what you think it is Too often, brands elect not to map the entire customer journey because they think they know all about what happens. Unfortunately, this sense of understanding is typically based on assumptions around the ideal journey, not the actual experience. As a result, customers experience unnecessary friction, frustration, and broken promises. “If someone makes me a promise…then I should be able to rely on that.” -Jeannie Walters We have 2 cases in point: While in Dallas, TX for the National Speakers Association (NSA) Influence 2018 conference, Adam and Jeannie noticed a few hiccups in their own journeys as customers. So they put on their customer experience hats to show you what can go wrong when your customer journey is viewed only from the inside out. “We’re using

Adam and Jeannie discuss an innovative approach to resolving collaboration issues and working together harmoniously with Alan Schaefer, CEO and Founder of Banding People Together. Take collaboration to the next level, then ROCK it! If you work as part of a collaborative team, then you know collaboration can be rough. But don’t beat yourself up! Even when there’s a solid process, collaborating effectively is rarely an effort that just falls into place. “There are no collaborative rules of the road” - Alan Schaefer It’s easy to think putting more heads together means cranking out better results more efficiently. But having faced incredible collaborative challenges as a band member, Alan Schaefer understands why collaboration poses additional challenges and causes friction among team members. So Alan decided to change this for organizational teams. He has developed his own methodology to not only help them collaborate better, but to do so in a way that’s repeatable. And you’re not going to believe how he

Jeannie and Adam report live from the National Speakers Association’s Influence 2018 conference to discuss what it means to do customer experience right. What’s the best way to “do” customer experience? We get this question a lot! In fact, our hosts recently attended the National Speakers Association (NSA) Influence 2018 conference in Dallas, TX, and several of the amazing speakers approached them to ask this same question. “When we introduce this idea of #CX, people ask ‘what does that mean?’ or ‘how do you start?’” -Jeannie Walters Being away from their studios, Adam and Jeannie decided to answer this popular question on camera for attendees then bring those tips home for you! There are a lot of strong opinions out there, but before you take one of them as gospel, please listen in and decide for yourself. “Every organization has a different DNA and a different cultural code you need to crack.” -Adam Toporek So, what is the best way to “do” customer experience, and more importantly, where should

Author and renowned speaker Jess Pettitt flips diversity training on its head to help us check our biases and stereotypes to not only reduce friction, but to leverage them for better experiences and greater business outcomes. Turning diversity training upside-down with Jess Pettitt When the idea of “diversity training” comes up, we often think it’s about making people feel more comfortable at work, and ultimately, avoiding situations that cause trouble. But today’s guest is here to explain that we have it all wrong. “People have been to so many bad diversity trainings they're also burned out.” -Jess Pettitt Training to operate in a diverse environment shouldn’t just be about “getting along” and avoiding friction. In fact, when diversity is approached properly, we create situations that are conducive to creativity, innovation, and meaningful relationships. “If you can’t try, you can’t be creative, you can’t innovate…” -Jess Pettitt In this interview, Jess outlines the pitfalls in diversity training a

Jeannie shares the best ways to become a powerful force for positive change in your organization as an in-house customer experience change agent. Who is the customer experience change agent for your organization? Organizational change is not easy, especially when it involves becoming customer-centric. While leaders mean well by making this the focus of a town hall meeting or a banner on the wall, business as usual takes precedence and these great ideas fade into the background. “Half the time we do not do it…. simply because we have too much to do.” -Jeannie Walters Finding different ways to make the announcement is not enough. In fact, when organizations try this over and over, teams stop taking it seriously and therefore, stop trying. Your next round of “let’s become more customer-centric” may do more harm than good! You need a customer experience change agent. You need a superstar who will advocate for customers in meetings. More importantly, you need someone who will evangelize for customer-focused

Adam and Jeannie offer customer-centric alternatives to common customer service phrases that seem innocent but tend to trigger negative emotions. Are these customer service phrases causing unnecessary friction? Communication can be difficult, especially in customer service situations. But we know this, so we try hard to maintain a positive tone for customers. However, there are many words and phrases we hear in customer service situations that may not always be interpreted the way we expect. “Some of these phrases really are hot buttons for people!” -Adam Toporek When you stop to think about them, some of these words and phrases are annoying, nonsensical, vague, patronizing, judgmental, or simply just poor choices of words. However, many of them have become so ingrained in our culture, we often take for granted that they’ve lost their literal meanings. As a result, what you're trying to communicate can be completely different than how it makes your customer feel, creating unnecessarily negative emotion

Bestselling author and global speaker Jeff Toister returns to the show with amazing tips and actions for creating and executing on your vision for an outstanding service culture. What’s your vision for a solid customer service culture? If you want to deliver outstanding customer service that inspires loyalty and positive word-of-mouth, then you need a customer-focused service culture. But while many leaders think they provide excellent service, they have an unrealistic vision of what that means. As a result, business strategies continue to cause conflicts that make maintaining a customer-focused culture an uphill battle. “It’s a journey that takes long-term commitment.” -Jeff Toister That’s why we’re delighted to have Jeff Toister on the show! In fact, Jeff joined us in the early days of Crack the Customer Code for a great discussion around the root causes of customer service failures. But now he’s back to help us create and execute a vision for customer service excellence. “You can’t just declare ‘fr

Adam and Jeannie share tips and insights around succeeding with, rather than just dealing with, difficult customers. Plus, we’re introducing Adam’s new course to help you become a pro at this!   If you're dealing with difficult customers, that's your first mistake. Dealing with difficult customers properly has always been one of the biggest challenges customer service teams face. In fact, it’s a sensitive issue that vexes leaders and employees throughout many organizations.  “This is the area that I see everyone struggle with, from the front lines to the c-suite…” -AdamToporek But what if dealing with difficult customers wasn’t an issue? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in your organization understood the neuroscience and biology behind what makes them difficult in the first place? Then the emphasis could be on succeeding with them, instead of just reacting and neutralizing their pain (and yours!)  “Biologically, we are not designed for reactive service.” -Adam Toporek That’s why we’re delighted to